The project was our salvation. It allowed us to develop as a
community group, as a cooperative, and as a microenterprise. Were
it not for the project, we probably would have disappeared.

The speaker is a member of a cooperative in Samaná, on the Dominican
Republics north coast, near the spot where the Atlantic Oceans
highest density of humpback whales shelters to whelp each winter.
She is one of many beneficiaries of a popular grassroots project
designed to protect the biodiversity of the countrys rich coasts,
while finding ways to use key resources sustainably.

The countrys social and economic well-being largely depends on
the health of its coastal zone. But this is suffering from intense
competition for resources, dramatically altered rural land use,
demographic pressures, and poorly planned tourism development.

Support network
The project  developed by a diverse coalition of national non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and university groups, with funds from the
Global Environment Facility (GEF) and guidance from the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP)  has pioneered an inclusive,
participatory process, attracting a broad array of supporters
and successfully educating communities nationwide.

By conducting workshops and encouraging institutions to undertake
planning and research together, it has strengthened national and
local management capacity. It has collected much information,
creating several databases, including a geographical information
system (GIS). And it has improved local appreciation for biodiversity
and its relationship to human welfare by holding over 50 workshops,
broadcasting a dozen media outreach programmes, and training over
300 schoolteachers.

Project managers mobilized a network of enthusiastic and committed,
if diverse, community groups to help plan resource management
at four project sites. Indeed, the projects final evaluation
highlighted the striking sense of pride and commitment they all
shared.

CEBSE, a national NGO supporting sustainable management and development,
invited the Centre for Marine Conservation, an international NGO
that has performed considerable work to protect humpbacks in their
North American and Caribbean feeding grounds, to participate at
Samaná.

Grupo Jaragua, another national NGO focused on Pedernales province,
serves as co-manager of the Jaragua National Park near the Haitian
border.

PRONATURA, a third national NGO, coordinated the involvement of
local NGOs and grassroots groups in the Montecristi area and worked
with the Center for Research in Marine Biology, from the Autonomous
University of Santo Domingo, to complete the biodiversity assessment.

With CIIFAD, its longstanding partner from Cornell University,
the National University Pedro Henríquez Ureña worked to demonstrate
the sustainability of the traditional agriculture practised in
the buffer zone of the Los Haitises coastal park, a protected
area that has long generated substantial social and political
conflicts.

If these organizations were the projects backbone, the local
communities were the muscle, committing time, energy and creativity.
In Los Haitises, for example, project participants  many organized
through the local Catholic Church  studied soil types and composition
and native vegetation, especially species that could be used for
agrosilviculture in the buffer zone. To help develop ecoconucos
 a variation on rural residents small agricultural backyards
 they assisted scientists in gathering information on traditional
practices.

Community leadership
At each site, local participants constructed community centres
for environmental education programmes, training workshops for
tour guides, and project meetings. In Jaragua, a local youth organization
called Voluntarios Comunitarios de Jaragua (VCJ) were leaders
in this, while a community reporter regularly interviewed local
participants for nationally distributed radio programmes. Esteban
Garrido, a VCJ leader said: We had to work very hard. At times,
we were not sure if we would make it. Now we feel very proud.
The community centre is of great benefit for us all.

Women were a primary force throughout the project, both nationally
and locally. Housewives from a local club were early participants
at the Samaná site, where small craft enterprises were developed;
they later enlisted the local mens club. In fact, CEBSE and Grupo
Jaragua are both led by Dominican women and served by female board
members from urban and rural communities.

From Government agency staff to local fishermen, this project
integrated a wide cross-section of Dominican society. By involving
those who benefit directly from managing local resources sustainably,
project planners have paved the way for continued progress in
preserving their countrys biodiversity.

Sixto J. Incháusteguiis Program Officer in the UNDP Dominican Republic field office.
Elizabeth Mook is Assistant Editor with the GEF.